Islamabad:
Political leaders, representatives of human rights and journalists at a round table conference in Islamabad announced on Thursday the launch of the National Movement against the 26th Constitutional Amendment, and formed a committee to campaign for movement.
The participants of the round table described the amendment 26 as a serious threat to the independence of the Judiciary and the Constitution. Senior Hamid Khan lawyer told the conference that a national convention will be held in Lahore on October 11 to mobilize support.
In the event, a committee was formed under the presidency of the lawyer Senior Barríster Aitzaz Ahsan to direct the campaign for the movement of national lawyers against the 26th amendment.
Other members of the Committee include Hamid Khan, Sardar Latif Khosa, Ali Ahmed Kurd, Qazi Anwar, Salahuddin Ahmed, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Justice (retd) Shahid Jamil, Munir A Malik and Shaist Khosa.
When heading to the round table, Iman Mazari warned that justice had disappeared from the courts and Parliament, therefore, the fight must now continue through a public movement. “Otherwise, this will be our collective disappearance,” he said.
Mazari also strongly protested restrictions imposed in the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC) that prevented lawyers and journalists from recording videos, as well as the denial of judicial access to Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) lawyers.
Senator Hamid Khan called for amendment 26 an attempt to undermine the independence of the Judiciary. “The public mandate was stolen, the electoral results were not respected: this is a mockery of democracy,” he said.
Justice (retd) Shahid Jamil warned that the rule of law no longer existed in the country and urged lawyers to face amendment 26, saying: “If they do not, the very existence of the Judiciary will be at risk.”
The Ahsan lawyer emphasized that the history of lawyers’ movements was full of sacrifices and that the country once more needed such a fight. The lawyer Ali Zafar criticized the government for using the Judiciary as a political tool. “The Constitution has been thrown in the trash.”
Salman Akram Raja described the last two and a half years as “the worst years of oppression and tyranny”, highlighting the judgments of common citizens in military courts as violations of fundamental rights.
The president of the PTI, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, declared that amendment 26 raised an important obstacle to an independent judiciary and promised the support of the party to the lawyer movement.
At the end of the conference, Khosa presented a resolution that summarizes the mission of the movement: “Save the country, protect the homeland and safeguard journalism.”
